Accidental Chaos
by Elya Rho
Summary: The apocalypse had been averted. The Hargreeves siblings were once again learning to get along. With Allison still wounded and Vanya traumatized and untrained, the Hargreeves brothers had promised to limit their activities to what amounted to a simple night out - taking down one little drug lab. Things, as usual, went spectacularly wrong.
1. Chapter 1

(Originally posted on AO3)

So, this story was meant to be a standard hurt/comfort one-shot. Somehow it morphed itself into a multi-chaptered monster. Fair warning - I've only watched the show once so far and I've never read the comics. Hopefully no one is too out-of-character!

Also, plot points pertaining to hospitals and drug labs are probably not entirely accurate. I will chalk that up to me being neither a doctor nor a drug lord. Sorry.

* * *

Chapter 1

Ben stared down at his brother's motionless form in growing despair, unable to fight the panic that was forming as he realized just how helpless he was.

Seeing Klaus in various states of unconsciousness was hardly anything new; from drugs and alcohol to bar fights and injuries, Ben had been an unwilling witness to countless misadventures that had taken their toll on the taller man. This, however . . . this was something entirely different.

Blood glistened on the side of Klaus's face as it slowly trickled down his cheek. He was covered in ash and debris from the explosion, his typically pale skin taking on the appearance of death with far too much accuracy for Ben's liking. It didn't look good, to say the least. Added to that was the fact that the building was on fire and the flames were licking closer and closer to where his brother lay unresponsive on the cold ground.

_Brothers_, Ben corrected himself with a flinch_._ It wasn't as though he'd forgotten, but he had even less chance of helping Diego than he did Klaus at the moment.

Diego was sprawled on the concrete ground several feet from the lanky medium, his features a bloody mess that made Ben's stomach twist in worry.

And there was nothing he could do.

There was no hope of Diego hearing his calls and pleas to wake up. Without a solid form, there was no way for Ben to shake him to consciousness or fetch help from someone nearby. No, Ben's only chance was to rouse the one man alive who could hear him, and even then he would have to hope that Klaus would be able to rally himself enough to save himself and Diego.

There wasn't much chance of that, by the look of things.

Klaus was out cold, not even flinching as Ben pleaded with him to wake up. Any attempts to touch the injured man had been met with similar failure. Ben simply couldn't gain substance without Klaus's conscious efforts.

He took a moment to glance up and down the alleyway again, hoping that Luther and Five would make an appearance.

Or emergency services.

Or _anyone_ who would bother to call for help for the two unconscious men lying in the ruins of the exploded drug lab.

Ben wasn't picky anymore - he would take whatever assistance showed up at this point as long as they were quick about it. As long as the next people to come down the alleyway were not bad guys coming to investigate their burning drug lab, Ben wasn't going to complain.

He was all too aware that if trouble arrived before help, Diego and Klaus were utterly screwed.

_Where the hell were Luther and Five, anyway?_

It was supposed to be a cake-walk - more of an excuse for the uninjured of the Hargreeves siblings to stretch their legs rather than an actual mission. No one was eager to rush things after the apocalypse debacle. With Allison still wounded and Vanya traumatized and untrained, the Hargreeves brothers had promised to limit their activities to what amounted to a simple night out - stopping one little drug lab. Leaving their sisters behind wasn't ideal and probably not fair, but Five was getting antsy and Diego wasn't much better. Luther wouldn't let either go without him and Klaus was still testing out his newfound skills. Where better to do so than an easy drugs bust?

In and out, Luther had promised. Take down the drug lab and leave the mess for the authorities. Even Diego had agreed with Number One that it wouldn't be a hard mission.

They had both been mistaken. It had been decided that Diego and Klaus would take the alley entrance while Luther and Five covered the front. Even before the call to move in, something had gone horribly wrong and the building had gone up like gasoline exposed to an open flame. The force of the blast had been enough to bring down Klaus and Diego, but Ben hadn't seen any sign of Five and Luther since before the explosion. Surely they hadn't gone in without telling anyone . . .

_What if they had been in the building when it blew_?

Ben turned back to the inferno behind him, horrified at the sudden thought that his brothers might have perished mere minutes before.

"Luther! Five!" Ben shouted into the flames, not caring that his cries were in vain. Even if he had a physical form, no one would have been able to hear him over the din of the flames. It was alarmingly loud in the alleyway and Ben couldn't hear anything beyond the roar of the fire and the ominous creaking of the remaining structure. The chemicals that had been inside were burning with horrific ferocity, threatening to devour everything in their path in short order. The heat coming off the conflagration would have been terrible to feel, but Ben was beyond such things. Luther and Five were not so invulnerable, though.

Ben wanted to go into the fire and check, to assure himself that the others weren't lying burnt and mangled in the disaster zone, but he couldn't bring himself to leave Klaus and Diego alone and vulnerable. He quelled his fears as best he could, forcing himself to concede that if Luther and Five had been inside when the explosion occurred, there was no hope for them at all. Certainly Ben couldn't do anything to save them now.

Turning his back on the ruins behind him, Ben fell to his knees beside Klaus, making himself focus on what he _could_ do - he could call his brother's name until the stubborn bastard actually listened for once. He could keep watch over his fallen siblings until help arrived. He could hope, he could coax and he could beg - whatever it took to get them out of this alive.

Because as lonely as Ben's existence could be with only one man to talk to, he wasn't ready for his brothers to join him in death. He would do everything in his power to keep that from happening.

So Ben talked and begged and threatened, fighting against the despair that welled within him as Klaus bled silently, heedless of Ben's words and fears.

He didn't know how long they had been there, how much time had passed since the explosion, but Ben could have cried when he finally heard the sound of sirens in the distance.

"Hold on, Klaus," he ordered, not caring when his voice shook slightly. "Help is coming. Just hold on."

When he finally saw the first firefighters rushing towards the blaze, Ben rose to his feet, waving his arms as though there was any hope at all that he would be noticed. It didn't matter; it was all he could do.

And when the first man to reach the scene gave a cry of alarm at the sight of the injured brothers, Ben thanked a god he didn't fully believe in and let himself hope that everything would be all right.

* * *

Everything was not all right.

Klaus could tell from the way Ben was pacing. Ben never paced. Pacing meant nervousness, and Ben hadn't really been nervous since he died. It was one of the things Klaus liked about him. Ben was quite simply the opposite of Klaus himself, which meant that when Klaus was twitching, frantic, and high out of his mind, Ben was quiet, calm and _sober_. He was the medium's very own Jiminy Cricket, acting as a voice of reason in Klaus's chaotic world, but with the worry evident in his every movement, Ben certainly wasn't living up to his job description.

"Will you stop?" Klaus groaned miserably. Trying to follow his brother's movements was wreaking havoc on his headache, a truly epic throbbing pain that threatened to split his skull in two. He clenched his fists in the scratchy fabric of his hospital gown and tried not to think.

What he wouldn't give for something to take the edge off. Even as the thought crossed his mind, he dismissed it. He couldn't fall off the wagon now - not if he ever wanted to see Dave again.

Ben glanced at him apologetically, but he stopped beside Klaus's bed and frowned. "You shouldn't talk to me while the nurse is here. Just focus on not throwing up again."

His words made sense and Klaus closed his eyes. "Right. Sorry."

Klaus hated hospitals. Scratch that; hate wasn't a strong enough word. He _loathed_ them. He _despised_ them. They smelled funny, they were too bright, they had bad food, and they were absolutely jam-packed full of dead people.

It felt like a horrible dream when he regained consciousness in the absolute worst place he could imagine. _Or was it the second worst place_? It was too hard to think and he didn't really want to know, anyway. He just wanted to go back to sleep; he could barely stand to keep his eyes open. It wasn't as though the last nap had done him any good, after all. He had awakened only to find himself immediately tired again. He had apparently already slept through a brain scan and having his clothes cut off and replaced with a flimsy, formless gown. The loss of his clothes pained him. It wasn't as though he had closets full of things to wear. It meant that he was going to have to borrow from Allison again and she wasn't going to be happy about that.

_What had he been thinking about again_?

Right. Dead people.

Since he had realized where he was, Klaus had been trying his absolute best to avoid attracting the attention of any wandering spirits. Vomiting violently had taken most of his concentration at the time, but it was hardly a desirable way to keep himself under the spectral radar.

He needed distractions.

Deborah, his nurse, was proving to be an excellent distraction. She was stitching up a long gash in his leg that Klaus didn't remember getting. He'd met her before when he was recovering from one of his numerous overdoses and she'd always treated him kindly. She'd never judged him for being some junkie, which was more than Klaus could say for a lot of people. There was something motherly about her that made her instantly likeable, and she had a tattoo of a dinosaur on her inner wrist. That alone made her the coolest nurse Klaus had ever been stitched up by.

"How are you feeling, Mr. Hargreeves?" Deborah asked evenly. "I can stop for a minute if you need me to, but I'm almost done. It might be easier on you if I just finish up. No point dragging it out, right?"

Klaus sighed. His plea for Ben to stop pacing had probably sounded like he was asking the nurse to stop her stitches. "I didn't mean you, Deborah. My head is just pounding."

"Well, the doctor said your CT scans look okay - no skull fractures or brain bleeds - so that's a good thing." Deborah pointed out. "We're just waiting on your blood work to come back, and then we can see about giving you something to take the edge off."

"Blood work?"

Deborah nodded. "Just making sure there's nothing funny in your system that might cause problems."

Klaus opened his eyes and blinked until she was somewhat in focus. "Nothing funny in there, darling. My body is a temple now. I've been clean for weeks and weeks and weeks."

"Now, that's the concussion talking." Ben gave a small snort of laughter beside him. "I think you mean days and days and days. You just hit the two-week mark a couple days ago."

_Right._ Somehow, sober time had seemed to slow to an interminable crawl and the apocalypse-that-wasn't was only barely behind them. Sometimes it felt like it had happened _years_ ago. Klaus frowned and turned to Ben. "Really, it's been two weeks to the day since the apocalypse and I was sober for two days before that . . . I think we can round that up and make it two and a half weeks, don't you?"

He was a little proud of his reasoning ability when it felt like his brains were leaking out his ears.

"Don't talk to me, Klaus. Talk to her, remember?" Ben grimaced. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything."

Klaus turned back to the nurse as Deborah's smile faded slightly. She finished up with the stitches and started covering the wound with a bandage. "I wouldn't know, Mr. Hargreeves. You'd have to tell me."

"Mr. Hargreeves was my father," Klaus said, "and he was a proper bastard. You can call me Klaus if you want."

The nurse finished with the dressing and stood, her knees creaking slightly at the movement. "Well, Klaus, I'll go give the doctor an update and we'll be back in a jiffy, okay?"

Klaus nodded and then instantly regretted moving as his head pounded in response.

He squeezed his eyes shut once more, breathing through his nose in an attempt to stop himself from throwing up. _Again_. He curled onto his side, drawing himself up as small as he could as though it would help stave off the impending vomit eruption.

"How are you doing?" Ben's voice sounded close, but Klaus didn't feel like answering. If Ben couldn't tell, then he clearly wasn't paying attention.

Ben, thankfully, didn't seem to require any kind of response. He fell into silence, standing absolutely still beside Klaus's bed like an intangible bodyguard.

Klaus couldn't help the snort of laughter that escaped him at the thought of Ben dressed up like Whitney Houston.

_Wait_ . . . she wasn't the bodyguard; she was the _bodyguard-ee_.

That would mean Ben was Kevin Costner and _Klaus_ was Whitney Houston.

"She had some pretty cool clothes," Klaus admitted. "I could pull those looks off."

"What?" Ben was clearly confused. "Who?"

His confusion made sense, really, because Klaus hadn't said any of that out loud and Ben wasn't a mind-reader. _Thankfully. _Explaining it to Ben seemed like too much work, though. Klaus just wanted to know what had happened to land him in the hospital in the first place, and this was likely the best opportunity to ask his brother without an audience. Klaus opened his eyes and immediately wished he hadn't.

Directly in front of him, standing by the curtain into the hallway, was a bloodstained man. A long gash ran from his forehead down his cheek, but the man seemed oblivious to the ghastly wound. He just stood there staring at Klaus as he lay curled on his bed.

"No, no, no, no, _no_," Klaus groaned in horror, his voice breaking at the sight before him. It was only a matter of time before the man started screaming and Klaus knew he couldn't handle it. His head was already in agony and he was too sober to block out ghosts. And there would be more; there were always more.

Ben turned at Klaus's cry and swore as he saw the figure by the door. "_Shit_. Klaus, just close your eyes and don't think about him. You've been practising; you can do this."

Klaus did what Ben told him, shutting his eyes quickly as he covered his ears with his hands.

He couldn't do this.

He'd been sober for barely two weeks. The only times he had successfully interacted with ghosts other than Ben had been when he was being tortured in a motel room and when his dead father had lectured him on wasting his potential. Since he'd technically been dead himself during that last meeting, he wasn't even certain he could count that one.

"Make him go away," Klaus begged softly. His head was pounding, making him dizzy and nauseated. He needed to leave. He had to get out before more ghosts found him, but he could barely move without feeling like his skull was going to shatter or something equally distasteful.

"I can't," Ben replied, regret colouring his voice. "I'm sorry. I would if I could, you know that."

Klaus did know that. Ben had his back, as much as he could, anyway. It was cold comfort, though. He cracked open his eye and shivered at the bloody man's empty stare.

There was sudden movement at the curtain and the doctor walked in, an older woman in rumpled scrubs and a long white coat. "How are we feeling, Mr. Hargreeves?"

She stepped into the room and immediately cursed as she turned a shocked gaze to the bloodied man standing beside her. "_What the hell_?"

"You can see him?" Klaus asked in confused astonishment, letting his hands fall from his ears. "How can you see him?"

Even Ben was brought short by the exchange, standing as though frozen at Klaus's side.

There was a moment of stunned silence in the room as the doctor glanced at Klaus for a moment before leaning back out into the hallway. "Deborah!" she called. "Did someone lose a patient?"

There was a flurry of activity as several nurses descended on the man and guided him swiftly from the room. The entire event took less than a minute and Klaus was left wide-eyed and gaping in shock as the doctor turned her attention back to him.

"He was alive?" Klaus asked tremulously. His heart pounded as though he'd just run a marathon. He felt like laughing - like he'd just dodged a bullet, and he was intimately familiar with how that felt.

The doctor nodded, frowning down at him as she reached for her pen light. "He was in an accident earlier and I guess he slipped away somehow. I'm sorry if he startled you."

Klaus laughed humourlessly. "I've seen worse."

"Careful, Klaus," Ben warned. "Just answer her questions. Don't offer extra information."

"Is there anyone we can call for you, Mr. Hargreeves?" the doctor asked as she checked his eyes.

The pain wasn't any less than the last time someone had shone a flashlight at him, and Klaus pulled away from her. He couldn't get far, but it was enough to save him from the painful beam. "Why? Who do you want to call?"

"Someone who could come keep you company while you're here," the doctor replied, "or who can pick you up when we release you. We don't have an emergency contact listed for you."

"I don't know who . . . Diego?" Klaus guessed. It was hard to think, but who else would come get him, really? Allison was wounded, still unable to speak after the violin incident. Vanya wasn't the best choice as she was still reeling from her part in the apocalypse debacle. Luther would probably lecture him, and Ben was dead - they probably wouldn't release a patient to a ghost. "I should call Five. That would be funny."

The looks on the faces of the hospital staff when his older/younger brother came to pick him up would be priceless.

Ben cleared his throat. "We're going to have to wait on that one, Klaus. I'm not sure where Luther and Five are. Also, Diego is here already. He's a patient."

"What?" Klaus tried to sit up, but quickly gave up on the idea as his head swam. "What happened? Is he okay? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Who are you talking to, Mr. Hargreeves?" the doctor asked, dark eyes narrowing as she watched the wounded man look past her.

Klaus ignored her, his attention focussed solely on his brother.

Ben shook his head. "Not now, Klaus. Just look at the doctor. I'll tell you what happened, but you need to act normal for awhile."

"Mr. Hargreeves?"

Klaus blinked, trying to organize his disjointed thoughts. He couldn't remember what had happened; why he was even in the hospital. Why was Diego here, too? "Do you know why I'm here?" he asked the doctor. "What happened? Was anyone else brought in with me?"

She gently reached out and helped him settle himself back on the bed. "You were caught in an explosion. That's all I know. If you were with someone, it's possible that they were either taken to a different hospital or they were given to another doctor."

"It was a mission," Ben said softly. "Drug lab, remember? You and Diego were going around the back while Luther and Five took the front. I know Diego is here; they said they were bringing him here, at least, but I don't know about the others."

"Can you check?" Klaus begged him. "You need to find them."

"Talk to her, not me!" Ben reminded him again.

Klaus obediently turned to the doctor. "Please. I think my brothers were with me."

The doctor's gaze softened slightly. "What are their names?"

"Diego is here somewhere for sure. He's really angry, dresses in black, and he's wearing a lot of knives." Klaus paused for a moment, trying to think of a way to describe Luther that didn't involve mentioning the words _ape-like._ "Luther is a huge, hairy guy with a superiority complex and he's a terrible dancer."

_There. No apes mentioned._

The doctor frowned.

"Five is an old guy in a teenager's body," Klaus explained with a pained groan. "It was an accident from the apocalypse. He dresses in shorts and he's got a bad attitude. Come to think of it, you probably won't find him because he can jump-"

"_Klaus_!" Ben's harsh whisper cut off whatever it was Klaus was going to say. He hadn't been entirely sure himself, but it was probably not great if Ben's expression was anything to go by.

"They sound like a . . . memorable group," the doctor said carefully. "I'll see what I can find out."

Klaus sighed, letting out the breath slowly. That was good.

The doctor moved to leave, suddenly giving Klaus a good look at the young woman standing behind her.

It was all he could do to avoid swearing.

The figure wore a short hospital gown that barely came to her knees. She was pale, with dark eyes that contrasted drastically with her ashen skin. She watched him with unnerving focus.

"I think you've lost another one, doc," Klaus said, hoping against hope that the figure was another wandering trauma victim and the hospital just sucked at keeping tabs on their patients.

"Excuse me?" the doctor asked. "Another what?"

"Patient?"

"She's not a patient," Ben said softly. "At least, not anymore."

"Fan-freakin'-tastic," Klaus breathed. "I need to leave."

"You can't leave!" Ben protested. "You can't even sit up."

"You can't leave," the doctor said firmly, unknowingly echoing Ben's words. "You've sustained some fairly serious injuries, and while your CT scans came back clear, we'd like to keep you overnight for observation. It's only a precaution and as soon as your blood work comes back, we can give you something for the pain. In the meantime, I can find out about your brothers, but you need to stay put, okay?"

Klaus wanted to cry. He was fooling himself if he thought he'd be able to leave on his own. His injured leg had more threads in it than one of Grace's cross-stitch pictures and he wasn't going to be able to drag his dizzy and nauseated body more than a couple feet before he'd be puking and/or passing out.

The dead woman watched him silently, but it wouldn't last for long. Soon, more would join her, drawn to whatever unseen force linked them to Klaus. Soon, they would call for him, screaming for help or vengeance on their behalf. Before long, Klaus wouldn't be able to block them out and he would join them in their screams.

"Please," he whispered. "Please find Diego."

The doctor smiled gently. "I will."

The words hadn't been meant for her, though, and Klaus ignored her. Only one person mattered right now, and that person was leaning into his line of sight with a look of deep concern.

"I will," Ben promised. "I'll find him and I'll be back. Just close your eyes, okay? Everything is going to be fine."

Klaus swallowed thickly and took a shuddering breath. "Please hurry."

He closed his eyes before Ben left, not wanting to see the dead woman now standing vigil at his side.

And he waited for the screaming to start.

* * *

tbc


	2. Chapter 2

I'm going to be a little mean to Klaus in this one - the poor guy really needs a hug. On the plus side, Diego gets a chance to strut his stuff . . .

* * *

Chapter 2

Diego Hargreeves was angry.

As though waking up in a hospital wasn't bad enough, he'd regained consciousness to find himself dressed in a too-short hospital gown that didn't close at the back and his knives had been taken from him. No amount of cajoling would convince the nurses to give them back, either.

He wanted to give voice to his frustration, but his ribs hurt too much. Really, everything just hurt. He knew he was lucky to get out of the explosion at all, but he would have been even happier if he'd managed to do so without the bruised ribs and dislocated shoulder. The bloody head wound that throbbed in time to his heartbeat was mildly annoying, too.

He'd been lucky there, too. _All meat and no skull_, as the nurse had told him. The ugly cut had bled like a stuck pig, but Diego had managed to avoid anything more serious than a couple of stitches in his brow.

None of that changed the fact that he was practically naked in a hospital and no one could tell him anything about his brothers.

Diego tried to tell himself that he didn't really care. Luther was still a bit of a prick, after all, but even Diego had to admit that the big guy could handle himself. There was a part of him, though, that couldn't deny that he just couldn't help but feel slightly protective of Klaus and Five.

_Maybe_.

Just a little.

After all, Five had only been back in his teenage body for a few weeks, and Klaus had been sober for even less time than that. Both of them had issues that probably wouldn't lend themselves well to waking up in a hospital.

There were other concerns, too. A drug lab exploding in the middle of the city was not going to escape notice. It was only going to be a matter of time before the police came asking about the heavily-armed man who had been plucked from the scene. Diego had no intention of being around when they finally made their appearance. The events after Patch's murder were still too fresh and Diego just couldn't handle another interaction with his former colleagues.

He waited impatiently for the nurse to finish up and leave the exam area before he seized his opportunity and slid from the bed. The sudden weakness in his knees startled him, but he forced himself upright through sheer willpower. His head spun at the change in position and he wished he could take deeper breaths.

_Stupid ribs_.

An unexpected breeze had Diego cursing as he reached behind him to pull his gown closed. He was going to have to do something about that. They'd needed to cut off his shirt to fix his shoulder; he understood that and accepted it. He was less accepting of the fact that they'd apparently felt the need to take his pants and underwear, too. The nurse had been unapologetic when he'd asked about it, telling him only that unconscious people couldn't exactly tell a doctor where they hurt.

It didn't stop Diego from mourning the loss of a pretty comfortable pair of pants. Luckily, his boots were sitting on a table nearby. The laces had been cut to facilitate their removal, but Diego could deal with that. It took some manoeuvring, but he managed to finally force his bare feet into the boots and he breathed a shallow sigh of relief. He already felt a little less naked.

All he had to do now was find his brothers and his knives, and escape from the hospital before the police showed up and realized that Diego Hargreeves had once again been found at the centre of a massive and messy crime scene.

_Easy_.

A voice just beyond the curtain of his room caught Diego's attention. He moved silently closer until he could peek out between the sheets to where two white-coated figures stood.

"The police are sending someone over now to talk to him, so he should be good to go whenever they're done with him," a tall, bald doctor said in a bored voice. "_If_ the police are ever done with him. The guy was armed to the teeth."

Even as Diego cursed his bad luck, he had to wonder just how many times the doctor had dealt with exploding buildings and armed vigilantes to attain that level of disinterest.

"My patient is asking about him," the other doctor replied. She was shorter with a mildly dishevelled bob haircut, and she looked tired. "Said he's his brother, Diego. To be honest, I thought he was making it up - he has a history of hallucinations and drug abuse - and really . . . an angry man wearing a lot of knives? It sounds a little out there, but you remember Klaus Hargreeves, right? Out there doesn't even _begin_ to cover most of the stuff he says."

"It may sound outlandish, but trust me - there were knives." The bald doctor huffed a little and Diego guessed it was meant to be laughter. "Diego Hargreeves, then . . . that's not the name he gave the nursing staff. A man with a fake name sounds like a man with something to hide."

Diego rolled his eyes in annoyance. He had been hoping to make it out of the hospital without anyone knowing who he really was, but Klaus had apparently blabbed his identity almost immediately. A smooth retreat was going to be next to impossible now.

The bald doctor barely paused for breath before continuing. "I guess the police will be wanting to talk with your patient, too, then?"

"They may not get a chance for awhile," the woman countered, giving a small sigh of frustration. "We're sending him for a psych eval. His tox screens and CT scan came back clear, but he's talking to people who aren't there and he was going on about the apocalypse. Like I said, hallucinations and drug use, but he has a history of psychotic episodes, too."

A fire-like rage ran through Diego with a suddenness and intensity that startled even him. Who the hell were these guys to say Klaus was crazy? And a psych evaluation? Klaus wasn't going to pass that, not in a million years. He was Diego's brother and even _he_ sometimes thought Klaus was nuts. Strangers wouldn't give him a second look before locking him up and throwing away the key.

It was all Diego could do to stop himself from storming into the hallway and punching his way past the self-important asses so casually talking about handing his sibling over to the psych ward. Over his dead body would they lay so much as a finger on his brother!

Diego clenched his teeth and glared as the two doctors exchanged more gossip disguised as professional observations about Klaus's mental state and Diego's armoury. Finally, the doctors seemed to reach some kind of agreement on something and moved down the hall and out of sight.

Diego barely spent a moment making sure the coast was clear before he pulled aside the curtain and stepped into the hall. At least he knew Klaus was alive. It was all he had to work with for the moment. He hoped Luther and Five were okay, but he found himself doubting that Luther had been brought to the hospital in the first place. If the big guy had been wounded, someone would have noticed his . . . _unique_ physiology and the doctors would have been gossiping about more than just Diego's knives.

It was thin evidence, but Diego was going to take what he could get. If Luther was alive and running around somewhere, there was a chance Five was okay, too.

In any case, Diego had no choice but to concentrate on getting to Klaus before he could even think of doing anything else. He needed to get the former junkie away from the well-meaning doctors before they locked him up for seeing dead people. From what he'd gleaned from the conversation he'd overheard, time was growing short on that front.

He didn't really know where to start looking for his brother, but judging by the lack of chaos and confusion in the immediate area, he probably wasn't nearby. Diego was going to have to scour the floor quickly and quietly.

After all, how hard could it be to find one man in an emergency ward?

The trick to avoiding notice was to look like you belonged there and had a purpose, so Diego held his head up high like he was a man on a mission. His injured shoulder throbbed and he cursed the fact that his arm was in a sling, a_gain_, but he wasn't going to let it slow him down.

No matter how badly he wanted to deny it, though, it was going to be a problem. He was unarmed and injured, two things that Diego didn't like, but in actual fact, it was even worse than that. One arm was in a sling and he needed the other arm behind him to hold his hospital gown closed. It was humiliating. If he let go, the lightweight cotton was going to flap open and anyone walking behind him was going to get a bit of a show.

He knew he had a nice ass, but still . . .

He winced as the hospital loudspeaker let out a shrill squeal before a tinny voice sounded.

"_Doctor Reynolds, call on line 4. Doctor Reynolds, line 4._"

How did hospitals expect anyone to get better with ear-shattering announcements going off unexpectedly like that?

Diego slowed down as he neared the nurses' station. Hopefully, no one would stop him, but there was a definite possibility that someone would recognize him as the guy who had come in with a dozen knives strapped to his body.

The nurse manning the station was in conversation with two men, the larger of whom immediately took Diego's attention. There was something about the way the blond held himself . . . like he was a man used to violence and who was unafraid of inflicting said violence on others. He was smiling in a friendly manner, but Diego had spent enough time around sleazebags to know one when he saw one. It wasn't his problem, though. Not right now.

He was going to continue on and avoid attention when a name caught his attention.

_Hargreeves_.

Diego glanced over with alarm even as he tried to school his features into nonchalance. This guy was definitely not a cop.

"Yeah," the man said with a forced laugh. "That's right, Luther Hargreeves. My brothers were on a mission and things went bad. I just need to know if they're here."

Diego almost laughed out loud. Why would anyone pretend to be _Luther_? It was ridiculous and the man was nowhere near Luther's size anyway . . .

Then it struck him that a dangerous man was pretending to be Luther Hargreeves in order to find out where his brothers were. And suddenly it wasn't so unthinkable.

He was pretending to be _Luther_, who had spent four years on the moon after being bodily altered by their father and who no longer looked just like his pre-moon self. _Luther_, who it was entirely possible had escaped the public eye for just long enough that a tired and overworked nurse might believe the impostor was exactly who he claimed to be . . .

_Luther_, who as a loving brother would be given the information he sought and would then know exactly where Klaus was.

There was little doubt the man was not really worried about their continued health. Diego was willing to bet money that the man posing as his brother was seeking revenge for a certain exploded building and lost drug revenue. The timing didn't fit any other explanation.

How did he even know the Hargreeves siblings were involved?

For that matter, what the hell had happened to Luther that someone could just waltz in and claim to be him? Was he even still alive? Where was Five?

Familiar anger swirled in Diego's chest and he moved to step forward. _If these guys had hurt the others_ . . .

The smaller man at fake-Luther's side shifted slightly and Diego saw the tell-tale bulge of a gun at his side.

Diego stopped with a deep frown and glanced around.

There were too many innocent people milling about. He couldn't let things degenerate into a gunfight; it was simply too risky. How many people would be injured before he could take down both men? And he only had one arm, bruised ribs, and no weapons. It was far too possible at this point that he wouldn't win the fight at all; they would barely break a sweat before killing him and then doing the same to Klaus.

There was nothing else he could do. He needed to find Klaus and get the hell out, and he needed to do it _now._

Walking past armed bad guys was one of the hardest things Diego had ever needed to do; the desire to hurt the men who threatened his family was almost undeniable. He had failed to protect them before and Klaus in particular had paid a hefty price for that failure. His brother's time in the hands of Hazel and Cha-Cha still plagued him with guilt and he'd be damned if he just stood by and let it happen again.

Diego Hargreeves walked past the nurses' station with his head held high. He was a man on a mission.

And that mission was to save his brother.

* * *

Klaus couldn't help the pained cry that escaped him. He was trying, clenching his fists over his ears to block out the sounds, squeezing his eyes shut to hide from the horrors in front of him, but it was too much. They were too loud, there were too many of them, and more kept coming.

They were calling his name, screaming their anguish and loneliness at him as though he would be able to save them from their torment.

He couldn't save them.

He couldn't even save himself.

His head was a throbbing mass of agony. He'd already thrown up again, but still the ghosts wouldn't show mercy. There was no escape from them.

He was pressed against the wall, sitting on the cold floor with his legs drawn up to his chest as he curled in on himself. He hadn't been able to get far. His injured leg and a sense of nauseating vertigo had sent him to the floor as soon as he had tried to get out of bed. He tried to hide; he tried to make himself a smaller target and avoid their accusing eyes and piercing howls. Being small wouldn't protect him, though. They were relentless, their every wail splitting into his head like an ice pick.

Some part of him was aware that he was crying, but there was nothing he could do about it. Everything hurt and the tears that escaped him were as beyond his control as the screaming spirits that were causing them.

_Where was Ben_?

He needed help. He needed something - _anything_ to take the edge off, to push him into peaceful oblivion until he could breathe again. At that moment, Klaus Hargreeves would have gladly downed an entire handful of random pills if meant silencing the ghosts.

A sob broke free as he tried to think of Dave, but his thoughts were scattered.

It was too much.

_Where was Ben_?

There were so many voices. So loud.

And then there were hands on him.

Klaus shrieked in alarm, struggling against them instantly, trying to shrug free of the tightening grips, heedless of his injuries as he flailed.

They didn't let go. Klaus found himself pulled from the wall and he lashed out with his bare foot, scarcely noticing when it made contact with something soft.

_The dead could touch him_.

The realization chilled Klaus to the bone. They could touch him. It shouldn't have been a surprise. He should have known they could; Ben had touched him before. Ben would never hurt him, but the others were not like Ben.

The others were only pain and terror -

"Klaus!"

Screaming their anger -

"Klaus, listen to me!"

So loud and they would never stop -

"_Klaus_!"

The voice wasn't like the others. It wasn't angry, it was . . .

_Ben._

Klaus took a shuddering breath, barely swallowing the scream that threatened to escape him. "Ben?"

The hands that held him didn't let go. He was being held down, pinned to the floor with pitiless grips that wouldn't relent.

"_Ben, help me_!"

"You have to calm down, Klaus! Stop fighting; you're going to hurt yourself! You're okay!"

How was it okay? What about the situation was even possibly okay? Klaus forced his eyes open, shocked to see the people holding him down were scrub-wearing orderlies and not blood-stained spirits.

"What the hell?" he wailed, fear giving partial way to sudden confusion. Where had they come from?

An unfamiliar doctor leaned into his view, a needle in hand as he reached for Klaus's arm. "Hold still, Mr. Hargreeves."

Klaus let out a small laugh. As if he could do anything else with his limbs encased in iron grips! His heart pounded in his chest as he watched the doctor inject something into his arm and he felt the familiar sensation of the needle being pulled from his skin.

"What was that?" Klaus asked shakily, both hoping and dreading that it was something strong and fast-acting.

"Just a mild sedative," the doctor replied in a cautiously soothing voice, like Klaus was a scared animal or something. "It will help you relax a little."

_Right. Relax. Of course._

"Ben?" Klaus tried to see beyond the figures of the hospital staff above him, but they blocked his view of his brother. Klaus could feel the tension start to leave his body. He blinked, trying to get his eyes to focus. "Ben?"

"I'm here Klaus," Ben replied, his face appearing over the doctor's shoulder. "Don't worry. Diego is here and he's okay. He's coming to find you."

It seemed to take a long time for Ben to answer, the words strangely distorted, and Klaus watched him through tear-blurred eyes as Ben frowned down at him.

"Okay," Klaus replied with growing lethargy. It didn't seem quite so important anymore. He forgot what his question had been in the first place. His mind swam and the hands finally started easing their hold on him. He tried to move, but his limbs were heavy and uncoordinated. He stopped trying.

There was a sudden whirlwind of motion as he was pulled upright before being deposited in the bed once more amidst a sea of different scrubs and murmuring voices as people worked around him and over him.

The sounds melted into each other, forming a strange, discordant hum that filled the room like dozens of mosquitoes buzzing around his ears.

Their words washed over him as he floated in a disjointed haze, somewhat present, but detached from himself as his body was moved and manipulated without his conscious awareness. He could feel his heart rate slowing and the pain in his head easing slightly.

He waited for the welcoming arms of unconsciousness to take him, but nothing else seemed to be happening. The crowd of orderlies gradually dispersed, leaving only the doctor, a nurse, and Ben standing over him as Klaus rolled his head lazily on the bed.

There was movement behind the doctor.

He blinked again, watching in muted horror as he realized that the dead were still there, lingering just beyond the living. The low hum was ever present, evident in the murmuring of their voices as they gathered in his room and waited for him to be theirs once more.

"No," he breathed, squirming ineffectively to try to get away. _Why was he still awake_? He didn't want to see them!

"It's okay, Mr. Hargreeves," the doctor assured him. "We're going to send you to a place where there are some other doctors to help you. You're going to be okay."

The doctor spoke to the nurse in a hushed voice before the nurse left the room.

"You need to knock me out," Klaus begged, his voice slurred even to his own ears. "Don't leave me with them."

"We're just going to arrange the transfer. It'll only be a few minutes. Don't worry; you're okay," the doctor replied dismissively, apparently not interested in granting Klaus's request.

"Nothing about this is okay," Ben said venomously, glaring at the doctor as he walked away and left Klaus alone with the ghosts.

Klaus tried to focus on his brother. Ben understood. Ben could see it; he could hear it. There just wasn't anything he could do about it.

Klaus wanted to cry. He couldn't think. He couldn't calm himself enough to sleep, not with the macabre spectacle forming at his bedside.

He was stuck halfway between unconsciousness and wakefulness; between being helpless and wanting desperately to be able to fight back.

His world was nothing but a prison of drugged haziness and the reality of a nightmare made manifest.

And when the first silent tears fell, Klaus couldn't even raise his hand to wipe them away.

* * *

tbc


	3. Chapter 3

Some violence in this one . . .

* * *

Chapter 3

Ben watched helplessly as Klaus drifted in semi-consciousness. The ghosts in the room were eyeing the medium with hungry expressions and Ben wished that he could do more than simply yell at them to keep their distance.

Not that there was much distance to keep . . .

The room was full of the dead. The hospital was an old one, and the spectres reflected its long and painful past. Ghosts from decades worth of horrible and traumatic ends milled about with mournful cries and horrendous wounds. Ben had seen terrible things in his life, and after his life for that matter, but the scene before him was almost indescribable in its gruesomeness. He had never seen so many ghosts in one place before, filling the room to the point where they were spilling into the hallway.

Ben could only guess that Klaus's newfound state of sobriety was somehow responsible for attracting the hospital ghosts in such numbers. If this is what it was like for him to be sober, Ben could see why Klaus had spent so much of his life in a haze of drugs and alcohol.

It wasn't always enough, though. Even sedated as he was, Klaus was clearly still haunted by the spirits in front of him. His eyes betrayed his fear and the tears slowly tracking down his face had Ben gritting his teeth in repressed anger.

Losing his temper wouldn't help Klaus. He needed to be calm. He needed to show Klaus that he wasn't alone in the parade of death that was pressed all around him.

Even as he stood guard over his brother, Ben couldn't help but wonder how everything had gone wrong so quickly.

Ben had only been gone a matter of minutes. After all, it wasn't as though he could travel too far from whatever force kept him tethered to his brother. He hadn't really wanted to leave Klaus at all, but he couldn't deny that he was worried about Diego, too.

In the end, Klaus's plea had swayed him. He had reluctantly left Klaus and conducted the fastest search of the emergency room floor that he could, checking in every cubicle, surgery room, and curtained examination area he could find, all the while feeling the invisible tug calling him back to the medium's side.

Finding Diego had been an intense relief, and though the man looked undeniably rough with his arm in a sling and stitches lining his brow, he had been alert and planning his exit. That was more than Ben could have hoped for. He had stayed just long enough to see Diego manage to get his boots on before heading back to Klaus to tell him the good news. The entire search had lasted less than ten minutes.

When Ben made his way back into Klaus's room, he had been optimistic. He had expected things to be much the same as they had been shortly before - Klaus injured and exhausted on the hospital bed, trying to block out a ghost or two, but still okay for the most part.

Instead, he had stepped right into a nightmare.

Klaus had been curled up against the wall, his own cries drowned out by the merciless wailing of the spirits - at least to those who could hear the dead. To the hospital staff, it looked like Klaus had pressed himself into a corner and started screaming.

Ben arrived just in time to watch in shock as the orderlies grabbed his brother and pinned him to the cold floor. Ben had shouted at them, punching ineffectively at their heads as they held the struggling man down. He had screamed at them in anger and promised swift and deadly vengeance if they didn't get their hands off Klaus _immediately_. In the end, he couldn't save Klaus. He could only offer meaningless words of comfort as his sibling finally give in to the inevitable.

Ben had watched as they drugged his brother.

He had seethed as they manhandled him back into his bed.

And then he had nearly lost his shit as they strapped Klaus down '_for his own protection'_.

If only Diego had walked in at that moment. Diego would have stopped them, probably violently.

Preferably violently.

Ben clenched his fists as he eyed the ghosts around him.

_Not even ten minutes_.

In that span of time, Klaus had taken such a turn for the worse it had Ben terrified for his continued well-being. How long could he last like this?

The cries of the dead were ear shattering, and Ben could only watch with a breaking heart as Klaus tried weakly to get away and failed. Klaus was clearly aware of the ghosts around him, but too out of it to understand why he couldn't cover his ears anymore. He blinked slowly at Ben, but seemed unable to put his thoughts into words.

The muted fear in his glassy eyes was more than enough for Ben to understand, though. It was like the mausoleum of Klaus's nightmares all over again - trapped, terrified, and defenceless against the onslaught.

"Oh, Klaus," Ben sighed as he watched tears slide unheeded down his brother's face. "I'm sorry. We're going to get you out of here, I promise. Just stay with me, okay?"

_Where the hell was Diego_?

Ben glanced to the door, hoping to see his vigilante brother make an appearance sooner rather than later.

Ben took up a position in front of Klaus's face, hoping that he could at least block his view of the spirits. He could do nothing about their wails. They screamed and cried Klaus's name as they lamented their fates and raged against the injustice of it all.

They had that much right - it _was_ unjust.

Klaus shouldn't have had to put up with constant assaults for his entire life. He shouldn't have had to turn to drugs to find a moment of peace. He shouldn't have had to hear his name on the lips of every decaying spectre who crossed his path.

Ben growled at the interlopers, warning them to keep their distance. To them, he was simply another spirit; just someone trying to stake a claim on the one person who could hear them. They all wanted a piece of Klaus, and they were not afraid to risk Ben's wrath to get it. There were too many of them to guard against. Some watched Ben with vacant expressions, others simply circled around to the other side of the bed without ceasing their cries.

Klaus whimpered and the sound cut Ben to the core.

"What the _hell_?"

Ben had never been so grateful to hear Diego's voice before. In a matter of seconds, the vigilante had crossed the room, walking directly through at least a dozen ghosts before planting himself firmly in Klaus's line of sight.

"What did they do to you? Are you okay, bro?" Diego's hand was gentle as he reached out and brushed a hand through Klaus's hair. Klaus only blinked at him with tear-filled eyes. "Klaus? Can you hear me?"

The lack of coherent response was evidently response enough as Diego started removing the straps holding Klaus to the bed. Diego's hospital gown gaped open at the back and Ben moved silently to the side to avoid the view. The look of utter fury forming on Diego's face had Ben unconsciously stepping back a little farther, even though he knew it wasn't directed at him. If murderous intent could be read in the eyes, Diego Hargreeves was promising a brutal and painful end to anyone involved in tying his brother down. Even the spirits filling the room seemed to quiet as Diego glowered in barely-suppressed rage.

Somehow, his obvious anger never transferred as far as his hands. Diego was working quickly, but his grip was gentle as he undid the bindings. Even as each limb was freed, Klaus did nothing but stare in silent horror at the things only he and Ben could see. He didn't even try to move.

Diego took a deep breath, settling his face into a more neutral expression. He patted Klaus's cheek briefly, wiping away a tear with his thumb.

"As much as I want to punch those sons of bitches for doing this to you, we have bigger problems," Diego said, despite it being obvious that Klaus was unable to reply. "We've got two guys with guns looking to even the score for the drug lab blowing up and it isn't going to be long before they find us. We need to make ourselves scarce."

"How exactly do you plan to make a getaway?" Ben asked, taking in Diego's sling with a concerned gaze. "He can't walk and you can't exactly carry him."

Diego gave a heavy sigh of frustration as though realizing the problem at the same time. He gave an experimental movement of his wounded shoulder, paling visibly as it caused him obvious pain. "Okay, buddy. Looks like you're going for a gurney ride. Do me a favour and don't fall off, all right?"

He didn't wait for a response before taking off the brakes and grabbing the end of the bed.

"It's not going to be easy to do that with one hand," Ben pointed out. Even so, he knew it wouldn't matter. Diego would get Klaus to safety if it killed him. There was no doubt in Ben's mind.

Sure enough, Diego pulled the bed and winced, leading Ben to believe he was hurt worse than he appeared. He didn't stop, though. The gathered ghosts moved back as Diego unknowingly ploughed his way through them. Ben stuck close to his brothers, glaring at any spirit who still sought to reach the drugged medium.

Diego tugged Klaus's gurney to the curtains, peeking out into the hallway before stepping through. He pulled Klaus after him and turned the bed to the right so that he was pushing it in front of him instead of pulling it as he tried to make good on their escape.

His gown was still flapping open at the back, but Ben could see that Diego was beyond caring. He made his way past startled patients and a bemused orderly, none of whom seemed quite sure what to make of an almost-naked man pushing a semi-conscious patient around the hospital.

The glare on Diego's face was nothing short of ferocious, and even the orderly didn't try to stop him as he made his way to the elevators. Diego slapped the call button even as he met the delightedly-scandalized gaze of an elderly woman in a wheelchair.

Ben rolled his eyes and watched as the orderly took off down the hallway to the nearest phone. Things were going to get chaotic soon.

Sudden movement down the hall caught his attention as he spotted two men making their way purposefully towards the fleeing brothers. Ben cursed suddenly; that chaos might end up coming even sooner than he thought.

There was no question that these were the men Diego had encountered. If nothing else, the looks of confusion giving way to cold-blooded intent to kill were a dead giveaway, as were the guns that they were pulling out from under their coats.

"Diego, watch out!" Ben shouted a warning. Diego couldn't hear him, but it didn't seem to matter. Diego had sharply-honed instincts from his years of training and glanced up just in time to see the larger man take aim.

"Shit!" Diego cried. "Everyone get down!"

He ducked slightly himself, curling over Klaus's head to protect his brother and cursing as he cradled his ribs. Klaus stirred on his bed, but otherwise didn't react. The old woman gave a cry of alarm as the first bullet zipped by her and impacted the elevator door.

Screams erupted in the hallway and the elevator dinged to announce its arrival.

Diego shoved his brother's bed inside, not caring that he was pushing people back into the lift as he followed the gurney's path. "Stay down! Keep low!"

He was already desperately hitting the button to close the doors, ducking as the bad guy took another shot. This one ricocheted off the metal bed frame and impacted the side of the elevator car. The passengers started screaming and finally the doors started to shut in an interminably slow process.

Another bullet, another near miss as the men ran to the trapped brothers.

Ben stood in front of the door as he fruitlessly tried to shield his siblings from their would-be murderers.

It was going to be close . . .

The larger gunman halted in his mad dash so he could take better aim. Ben cursed colourfully and wished that he had physical form; he would have ripped those men apart gladly if it meant protecting his brothers.

He heard the door seal behind his back, finally blocking the elevator interior from the view of the gunmen. It didn't stop the men from firing into the barrier, no doubt hoping that something might get through to kill the people inside.

Ben stepped through the closed door, finding himself inside just as the lift whirred into motion. Frightened passengers huddled on the floor watching Diego with terrified gazes.

"When this elevator stops, you all need to get out in a hurry and hide," Diego said firmly. "Get behind something that will stop bullets and stay down, got it?"

There were shaky nods in response and Diego let out a loud sigh.

Ben took a moment to glance at Klaus, who was still mired in a drugged stupor. He seemed unharmed, but he clearly was unaware of what was going on. At least there were no screaming ghosts on the elevator to torment him.

Diego had pressed the button for the top floor at some point during the attack, and the elevator made its way interminably closer to that goal. A little bell dinged every time a new floor passed, sounding impossibly loud in the near-silence of the lift.

With a frown, Diego suddenly hit the button for the 8th floor . "Everyone is going to get out here. They're not after you, so as long as you hide, you'll be okay. Remember what I said - keep low and hide, understand?"

There were a few whimpers at his announcement, but Diego was already turning his attention to the door. He pulled Klaus's bed to the side to allow the other passengers to pass.

Ben could feel the tension in the small area.

The lift slowed and the bell dinged.

"Get ready," Diego warned.

The moment the doors opened, Diego stuck his head out to check if the coast was clear. "Go, go, go!" he ordered. "Stay down!"

The passengers ran in terror, some with tears streaming down their faces. Diego's expression could have been chiselled from stone, but Ben knew it had to be killing the vigilante to leave defenceless people on their own. There was nothing else he could do in this case. Being near Diego and Klaus was far more dangerous than being on their own would be. The assassins were after the Hargreeves brothers, not random hospital visitors.

Diego only spared a second to make sure the people were following his instructions before he was back in the elevator and repeatedly hitting the button to close the door.

"I hope that didn't cost us our lead time," he muttered, glancing over to Klaus as the lift moved once again.

Ben bit his lip and tried to stay calm as the elevator finally approached the top floor.

Diego gripped Klaus's bed frame tightly and waited for the elevator doors to open.

Another ding of the bell and the wait was over.

The doors finally opened and Diego was in motion, stepping into the hallway with a quick glance both ways to ensure the gunmen weren't already lying in wait. He yanked on Klaus's gurney, pulling the bed out of the elevator and propelling it in front of him as he ran.

The uppermost floor of the hospital was oddly deserted, with only a handful of people wandering about. Ben couldn't help but feel that was a good thing, but there were still too many innocent people around for his liking.

Diego suddenly turned, ducking into a room seemingly at random. "Okay, Klaus, sorry about this."

Ben watched with a wince as Diego tried to get his brother off the bed. Klaus was nothing but gangly limbs and a lolling head - no help at all as Diego tried to pull him to his feet.

Diego swore at the strain and ended up doing nothing more than slowing the medium's descent as he fell limply to the floor.

"What exactly are you trying to accomplish here?" Ben asked as Diego tried to regain his breath. The other man was clearly struggling with injured ribs, and Ben itched to help him.

Of course, Diego didn't answer him. He merely took Klaus's wrist in his one working hand and dragged the semi-conscious man into the bathroom. "I'm gonna come back for you," he assured Klaus with a concerned frown. "Gotta do something about the bad guys first, though."

Ben frowned. Klaus would be safer from the gunmen, that much was certain, but he hated leaving him alone and confused. He was also vehemently against the thought of Diego facing down the gunmen on his own. He couldn't help physically, but his brother was going to be in a fight for his life, a fight he could very well lose. It wasn't a choice Ben wanted to make, but in the end, he knew what Klaus would have asked him to do.

"I have to help Diego if I can," Ben said softly. "You'll be safe here. There are no ghosts yet and I swear to you I will be back before they find you again."

Klaus made no sign that he understood, but Ben nodded anyway. He went with Diego as the other man stepped out of the bathroom and shut the door behind him.

"What the hell are you doing?" A shrill voice had Diego whirling to face whatever threat was behind him - which happened to be an old man in a hospital bed. Ben hadn't even noticed that the room was occupied.

Apparently, neither had the super-vigilante, whose eyes were comically wide. Any other time, Ben would have laughed at Diego's reaction, but not now. Right now, they simply didn't have time for it.

"You need to stay low and stay quiet, do you understand?" Diego said shortly, even as he ran to the door and peeked out. "If anyone comes in here, you never saw anything, got it?"

Even as the old man nodded, Diego was once more moving. He pulled the gurney into the hallway, leaving it by the wall so it looked like any other temporary bed abandoned in the corridor.

Ben followed behind him, torn between wanting to stay with Klaus and needing to make sure Diego didn't get himself killed.

"This would be a great time to have my knives," Diego muttered to himself.

Ben watched as Diego ran to the nurses' station and reached over the counter to grab whatever projectiles he could find.

"Get down!" he commanded the startled nurse as he unceremoniously ransacked the station.

"You're out of time!" Ben cried. The stairwell door opened and a large blond gunmen spilled into the corridor, racing forward with a look of triumph on his face.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

The gunman grinned menacingly and raised his gun.

Diego swore with vicious creativity and let loose the first weapon he had managed to lay his one good hand on - a stapler.

Ben watched wide-eyed as the stapler made its way unerringly for the man's head even as the goon fired, but Diego was already ducking. He didn't need to watch to know the item would hit exactly where he intended.

The big blond took the stapler right to the temple and he let out a loud cry of pain. Ben didn't see where the bad guy's bullet hit, but as long as it wasn't in a living person, he didn't much care.

The hallway erupted into chaos. Anyone wandering the halls soon found it an undesirable place to be and ducked into whichever room happened to be closest. Diego cursed as he hastily raced across the hall to what appeared to be a supply closet. Ben could only hope his brother knew what he was doing.

The thug wasn't distracted for long, shaking off the unexpected blow with a look of murderous intent. Ben shot a worried look to Diego, who was still cursing with clear frustration. "Plastic pee bottles? Are you freakin' _kidding_ me?"

Even from where he was standing, Ben could see that the room was filled with pre-packaged odds and ends - it looked like it was mostly things like little bundles of catheters and bottles of hand sanitizer, certainly nothing that would be anywhere near lethal enough to use on a man armed with a gun.

Speaking of . . . hadn't Diego said there were two gunmen? _Where was the other bad guy_?

Ben turned back to the approaching shooter, suddenly very concerned about just where the other one had gone. Suspicion grew within him and he glanced behind him.

"Shit," he cursed. "Diego!"

The second gunman had evidently taken the stairs at the far end of the hall and was now making his way forward with a manic expression on his face.

Diego had grabbed the largest thing in the room, a jug of cleaning solution, and was turning back to the hallway. He had no idea the other man was coming!

"Diego!" Ben cried again, hating how useless he felt, how helpless he was to stop what would undoubtedly be his brother's body getting riddled with bullet holes.

Diego's arm cleared the doorway as he lobbed the jug towards the tall attacker. The gunman instinctively flinched as it flew towards him and he raised his hand to deflect it. Seizing the moment, Diego dove from the useless supply closet, scrambling across the hallway back to the questionable safety of the nurses' station even as the second gunman opened fire.

More screams pierced the air and Ben found that his voice was one of them as Diego barely managed to avoid having his torso ventilated by a hail of bullets.

Diego didn't even seem to realize just how close he had come to death. He was already scrabbling for anything he could throw at his assailants, apparently coming up with a single letter opener.

One letter opener for two attackers. The odds weren't great and the men were closing in.

"Hey, fellas! Looking for me?"

Ben whirled to see Five standing in the hallway directly in front of the second gunman.

"Five?" Diego called in disbelief. "_Where the hell have you been_?"

The shorter attacker raised his weapon, but Five had already vanished, appearing behind him instantaneously. He punched the man viciously in the kidney before blinking away again.

Ben watched in growing satisfaction as Five jumped, each time landing another blow on his confused opponent who never had a chance to land a blow of his own.

Diego didn't sit idle and wait for his brother to save him. The vigilante flung the letter opener with deadly accuracy, bending it at the last second to pierce the tall gunman in the eye. The man screamed in agony even as a meaty fist came down over his head to hammer him into submission.

Luther loomed behind the would-be assassin as he toppled unceremoniously into unconsciousness. Ben couldn't help but grin as Luther reached down to take the bad guy's gun.

Ben turned his attention back to Five, who had just used a metal bedpan to bludgeon his own opponent, hitting him several times for good measure once he was on the floor. With both gunmen down, the hallway suddenly felt far too quiet.

"What the hell happened?" Diego asked, his voice harsh. He was staggering slightly, pain evident on his features as he cradled his ribs. "Where the hell were you guys? I thought you were dead or something! And how the hell did these guys know who we were?"

"First things first," Luther replied, his voice irritatingly calm. "We need to get out of here before things get out of hand."

Diego glanced at the bullet-riddled hallway. "This isn't already out of hand?"

"I don't really want to answer questions from the police. Do you?"

Luther had a point, but Ben was already shaking his head, wishing the others could hear him so he could counter it.

"The hospital records show we were here. The doctors and nurses all know we were here. Even if we leave, there's a trail." Diego, once again, seemed to take the words right out of Ben's mouth.

Five shook his head. "It won't take me more than a couple minutes to steal the records. No paper trail."

"And the staff? Allison can't even talk yet, much less rumour someone into forgetting key players in a shootout."

Luther shrugged uncertainly. "What if we asked them nicely to forget us?"

"I'm sure that will work just _splendidly_," Five said sarcastically. "We'd be better to lay low and say it was people pretending to be you. Our word against theirs and we'll be long gone before anyone thinks to look for us anyway."

Ben rolled his eyes. His brothers were all idiots. "Can we discuss this _after_ we see if Klaus is okay?" As usual, no one heard him.

"Or, we tell the truth," Luther offered. "Tell the world that the Umbrella Academy is back and that we're doing missions again."

"I think that's something we need to discuss as a group," Diego countered. "The others might not like us making that decision without them."

Luther opened his mouth to say something, but he never got the chance.

"Shit!" Diego cried. "_Klaus_!"

"Oh, finally," Ben groused. "Better late than never, I suppose."

The brothers raced down the hall, following Diego as he made his way into the room where he had hidden his drugged sibling.

"I'm never going to be able to un-see that," Five complained as Diego's hospital gown revealed more than a little skin. Diego raised a middle finger in response.

"Was that gunfire?" the old man in the bed asked as they burst through the doorway. Diego ignored him, instead flinging opening the bathroom door with a sigh of relief. "He's still here."

"It's all fine now," Luther assured the old man with a sombre nod. "You'll be okay - _what the hell happened to Klaus_?"

Ben couldn't see over Luther's shoulders, so he just walked through him. Klaus was still in the same position he had been in when they'd left him. It made sense, since it had only been a matter of minutes since Diego had stashed him, even though it felt like hours had passed. Ben let out a sigh of relief as he noted the room was still blissfully ghost-free.

Klaus's hospital gown was riding up his legs to a dangerous degree, and Diego quietly pulled it back down to protect his brother's pretty much non-existent modesty.

"The doctors thought he was crazy," Diego answered, patting Klaus's head reassuringly. "They doped him up and were going to ship him off for a psychiatric evaluation. We all know how that would have ended."

Ben watched as Luther and Five absorbed Diego's words. Ben was happy to see the answering anger on both their faces.

Luther clenched his jaw so tightly, Ben was surprised he wasn't cracking teeth. "Right. We're taking him home. _Now_. Five, see what you can do about the paper trail."

Five nodded and disappeared in a flash.

"Can we move him?" Luther asked Diego, his voice surprisingly composed. "I mean, how badly was he hurt?"

Diego shook his head. "I have no clue. They drugged him before I found him. You carrying him can't do any more damage than I caused getting him into the bathroom, though."

Luther seemed to accept that and moved to gather the smaller man into his arms. Klaus didn't do anything more than blink owlishly as he was carted out of the bathroom like a bride on her wedding day. It was unnatural to see the dark-haired man so still and silent, but Ben was relieved to see that he didn't look as distressed as he had been earlier.

Diego checked the small closet in the room and found an extra blanket, which he draped over Klaus's semi-conscious form.

Without any fanfare, Five appeared again, waving two clipboards in his hand. "Got the files . . . and these." He raised his other hand which held Diego's knives.

"Let's get out of here," Diego muttered, taking the knives with a nod of thanks. "I freakin' hate hospitals."

* * *

tbc


	4. Chapter 4

Last chapter! I just want to say thanks to everyone for taking the time to read this. I had a lot of fun writing it!

* * *

Chapter 4

It was the sound of voices that finally woke him. They weren't screaming his name or wailing in pain, which was a novel change. These voices didn't sound angry at all.

There was a quiet peal of laughter before someone made a shushing sound that was louder than laughter had been in the first place.

There was silence for a moment before the conversational murmur started up again and Klaus found himself relaxing as he let the sound wash over him.

He was so warm and comfortable. He had no interest in ever moving again. A slow sigh of contentment escaped him.

"Klaus?"

He winced slightly at the sound of his name, but the tone was soft, questioning, and familiar . . .

"Vanya?" Klaus asked in surprise. His voice was scratchy and sounded like he'd been screaming. To be fair, he was pretty sure he had been at some point. He opened his eyes and blinked to try and bring the world into focus. The room was thankfully dim. Klaus didn't think he could stand anything too bright. Consciousness reminded him that his head still ached miserably, though the pain was nothing compared to what it had been. All things considered, it wasn't like he hadn't dealt with pain before. He would live.

It took him a moment to realize that he was lying on one of the living room couches in the Academy. It took him a moment longer to realize that his head was resting in Vanya's lap. She had her hand wrapped over him protectively and the sheer novelty of finding himself being _cuddled_ had Klaus looking up at her in confusion.

She smiled down at him, the expression still looking out of place and hesitant on her features. After everything that had happened, it was that one uncertain gesture that perfectly encapsulated just how alone Vanya had been all her life. It made Klaus sad.

He tried to smile back at her, ignoring the throbbing in his brain.

"How did I get here?" he muttered, wincing at the dryness in his mouth. He was pretty sure his breath was foul.

"Klaus? You with us, buddy?" Diego's voice sounded very close and Klaus barely had time to redirect his attention before his brother was in his field of view. Diego looked concerned as he lowered himself gingerly to sit on the coffee table. His face was marked by stitches along his brow and Klaus winced in sympathy as he took in the sling and the careful way Diego was holding himself.

"You look like you had a very bad night," Klaus observed.

"I was going to tell you the same thing," Diego retorted. "You have no idea what kind of trouble we-"

"You're okay, Klaus," Vanya said evenly, cutting off whatever verbal barrage Diego was about to unleash. "The guys brought you back here after the hospital."

_Right_.

The hospital.

Klaus couldn't help the shudder that ran through him as the memories of the dead came rushing back. It had seemed like a bad dream - like he had only been having a terrible nightmare, but it had been real. He had never seen so many spirits at once before, and even the memory of their screams made Klaus want to cover his ears.

_Where was Ben_?

He glanced around, hoping that the room would have only one ghost in it. If any of the hospital spirits followed him home . . .

Ben was perched on the arm of the couch by Klaus's feet, a look of schooled indifference on his face as he watched his brother. At first glance, it was the same look he always had when Klaus regained consciousness from a night of overindulgence, but even with the pain in his head, Klaus could see right through the act.

Ben was feeling guilty.

He managed a small smile for his dead brother; Ben had nothing to feel guilty about. He wasn't entirely sure what had happened after the ghosts started screaming, but Klaus knew for certain that it wasn't Ben's fault. He remembered his brother's voice comforting him through the wails of the spectres that mobbed him. He remembered knowing that no matter how bad it got, Ben was by his side. Ben was his sanity, which was a difficult and pretty much thankless task at the best of times. He held Ben's gaze until there was the hint of an answering smile.

_Much better._

Klaus looked around the room then, surprised to see the rest of his siblings were nearby. Five and Luther were sitting on the opposite couch and Allison was in the chair by the fireplace. All of them were watching him attentively.

"Hey, guys," Klaus greeted them.

Allison smiled back at him, a look of profound relief on her face. She held up her notepad, but Klaus couldn't convince his eyes to make sense of it quite yet. He squinted, then winced as his head throbbed in response.

_Concussion_ . . . _right_. Why couldn't he have gotten super-healing as a power?

"Sorry, sis," Klaus said with a groan. "I don't think the old melon is up to reading quite yet."

Allison nodded sadly, but Luther got up from his place on the couch and walked over to her. Allison handed him the notepad.

"She says she's very glad to see you're okay," Luther read. "You had her worried and she's never letting any of us go anywhere without her again, because apparently we can't be trusted not to get ourselves killed."

"You either wrote that _very_ quickly," Five chimed in suspiciously, "or you were just waiting for a good time to tell us we're all idiots."

Allison shrugged slightly, but the answering smile gave her away.

"You're not wrong," Diego said to Allison. He turned and gave a small nod to Vanya, too. "Stuck in that hospital with gunmen after us . . . we could have used a little backup."

Luther passed the notebook back to Allison and nodded his agreement. "As much as I hate to admit it, things got pretty out of hand. It wasn't really our fault, but we didn't deal with it the way we were trained. We didn't adapt and we got split up -"

Klaus coughed dryly, interrupting Luther's speech. He wasn't trying to be disruptive, _really_, but he was parched. _So thirsty_ . . . he kept his expression innocent and vaguely pathetic as Luther fell silent.

Ben smirked knowingly and Klaus didn't dare meet his gaze. If he started laughing, Luther would go right back to his lecture.

Vanya seemed to take the hint and she nudged Klaus gently. "You want some water?"

Klaus moaned at the thought of sitting up, but despite his theatrics, the promise of water was far too appealing to deny. With an exaggerated sigh, he let Vanya and Diego help him up. It was a simple movement, one he'd done thousands of times in his life, but it left his head spinning. Klaus closed his eyes and hoped the world would stop wobbling before he threw up.

The blanket settled in his lap, leaving his arms feeling cold. He shivered slightly and was grateful when Vanya put her arm around him again, hesitating as though to make sure it was okay. Klaus sighed and leaned into her embrace. Vanya hugged him tighter in response. It didn't fully banish the chill, but it helped.

When he finally felt like he could manage it, Klaus opened his eyes and accepted the glass that Diego had procured from somewhere. He wondered vaguely how long he had been sitting there with his eyes closed for his brother to have left and returned without him noticing.

"Still with the _delightfully _dull hospital gown, I see," Klaus noted dryly as he glanced down at himself. No wonder he was freezing. "The very best in hospital chic."

"Just be glad Diego isn't wearing his anymore," Five muttered.

Diego rolled his eyes, but nodded sympathetically at Klaus's words. "I hear you. Those things are the worst, but we thought it was more important to get you horizontal than to try squeezing your unconscious ass into those crimes against fashion that you call pants."

"Says the guy who accessorizes with _knives_." Klaus took a drink and could have cried at how good it tasted. He hadn't even realized how thirsty he was until he had taken that first sip.

"Not too fast," Luther warned. "If you throw up, I think Vanya is in your blast range."

Diego shot Luther an annoyed look. "I'm the one sitting right in front of him."

"Yeah, but if he throws up on you, it'd be funny."

Ben gave a snort of laughter and Klaus couldn't help but smile in response. The water helped clear his head. Already, he felt a little bit better.

Klaus turned to Luther as a thought hit him. "Where were you guys? What happened after the explosion?"

Everyone else turned to Five, who rolled his eyes in response. "You guys are enjoying this way too much."

"Enjoying it?" Klaus asked. "What's he talking about?"

"Apparently, they would have made it to the hospital sooner, but Five fainted," Diego said with a tone that strongly implied that he actually _had_ been teasing his brother about it.

"I didn't _faint_," Five protested. "I passed out because I saved Luther's gigantic ass."

Klaus frowned. "You guys were at the hospital?"

"Maybe you should start at the beginning?" Vanya suggested.

Luther nodded. "Back at the drug lab, Five jumped inside the building to get a lay of the land before we stormed the place. When he was in there, he noticed there was some sort of chemical mixture that was unsafe-"

"Not just _some mixture_," Five interrupted. "Those guys had absolutely _zero_ knowledge about working with dangerous chemicals and containing them properly. I'm surprised they hadn't blown themselves up earlier."

"-and when he saw things take a turn for the worse-"

"There were three men with lit cigarettes in the work area. They shouldn't have been surprised when it caught fire - they were totally asking for it."

"- he jumped back out and grabbed me-"

"Very heroically."

"-and he somehow managed to jump us away from the building before it blew."

Klaus blinked in surprise. "You jumped while carrying _Luther_? You can do that?"

Five shrugged. "I wasn't sure. It was worth a shot. I was going to come back for you guys, but apparently carrying someone with me took a lot out of me."

"That's when he fainted," Luther confirmed sombrely. "I grabbed him and started back for you two, but the place was already crawling with bad guys and they thought we were responsible for blowing the place up. We only started getting the upper hand after the police and fire trucks rolled in and the gang started scattering."

Klaus nodded slowly, trying to picture the scene. "So, you were being chased by armed gunmen while carrying poor little Five over your shoulder? Or was it bridal style?" He grinned cheekily, ignoring his headache in favour of teasing his brother.

"You're lucky you're already concussed or I'd be inclined to hit you myself," Five muttered. "And you can't make jokes about being carried bridal style."

"What do you-"

"And while we were playing cat-and-mouse with them, some of their buddies were following you guys to the hospital," Luther added, cutting off Klaus's question before he could finish.

Klaus turned wide-eyes to Diego, who nodded.

The vigilante looked almost embarrassed. "There was a bit of a shootout there, too."

"Turns out, one of the bad guys was a long-time comic book fan," Five interjected with sarcastic cheer. "He recognized our car as they were chasing us down the block and was apparently capable of putting it together to get a working theory. You know, I always thought vanity plates were a bad idea - makes it impossible to blend in." He paused, but no one commented on his observation, so Five continued. "Anyway, the Umbrella Academy car and a giant strong man throwing heavy things at them made it pretty obvious that we weren't just passers-by. Luther found out that little tidbit later when he finally got the opportunity to bang some heads together."

Luther nodded. "The fellows I spoke to were very clear on that point. If the Umbrella Academy was making a comeback, they wanted to make sure to whittle down our numbers while they could. They watched you both get taken away in ambulances; they knew you were injured and alone, and they probably wouldn't get another chance at you. They sent some guys to kill you and by the time we realized that, they had a pretty good head start."

"Then I woke up and we went to rescue you two damsels in distress," Five added.

"My heroes," Klaus snorted in amusement.

"So, they knew they were facing Luther in the streets, but they didn't know who had been taken to the hospital," Diego clarified. "They had a guy pose as Luther so the hospital staff would lead him right to us. If I hadn't already been leaving at the time, it might have worked. They could have cornered us in our rooms, killed us quietly, and slipped away without anyone being the wiser. Nice, simple revenge."

"Well, it sounds like I missed quite a bit," Klaus mused, unsure how he felt about that.

"Diego was pretty badass," Ben piped up. "He was pushing your hospital bed all over the place while dodging bullets."

"Really?" Klaus asked, his eyes widening in surprise. It wasn't surprising that Diego was a badass, not really, but the fact that he had carted Klaus around with him made the medium a little sad that he couldn't remember it happening. At the very least, racing a gurney around the hospital would have been pretty awesome.

Ben nodded. "Complete badass. He even threw a stapler at someone."

"What did he say?" Diego nudged Klaus's knee.

"Just that you were a stupendous brother, heroically risking your life to whisk me away from danger," Klaus answered with a smile. "That, and how you couldn't stand the thought of something happening to your very, very favourite sibling and you swore if we got out of it all alive, you'd never complain about driving me anywhere ever again."

Diego sighed and shook his head. "Well, he got the heroic part right, at least."

"In honour of your heroics, we should watch _The Bodyguard_," Klaus announced suddenly.

Diego barely reacted to the change in topics. "No, we really shouldn't."

"Ben loves that movie! We could do a family movie night!"

"I don't think I've ever seen that movie," Ben corrected him.

"Well, you'll love it when you see it," Klaus told him.

"That sounds like it could be fun," Vanya said quietly.

"See?" Klaus patted Vanya's knee. "Vanya's in . . . and so is Allison, right?"

Allison nodded thoughtfully and Luther sighed in response. He looked unhappy, but Klaus knew that Allison's assent meant he would be watching the movie, too. Even Five didn't look horribly opposed to the idea.

"Fine," Diego agreed reluctantly. "You need to rest, anyway. At least if you're watching a movie, you're sitting still somewhere."

Klaus didn't bother to point out that Diego probably needed the rest more. He looked far worse than Klaus felt, and that was saying something.

Luther cleared his throat. "It will have to wait until a little later, though. I have a meeting with some of Dad's old contacts at city hall. The hospital shootout ruffled some feathers and Pogo told me how they used to smooth these things over in the old days. I'm going to try my hand at it."

"Bribery?" Vanya guessed, her tone slightly bitter. "Weird favours, blood diamonds, selling kids? It can't be anything good, can it? Not if Reginald Hargreeves thought it was a viable plan."

Luther shrugged. "Money and a team of superheroes protecting a city can do a lot to calm people down. I'll keep things as up-and-up as I can manage, I promise, and I'll tell you everything when I get back. Our family is through with underhanded schemes and secrets."

The look that passed between Luther and Vanya was more than just a promise to avoid breaking the law; even Klaus could see that through his still-blurred vision. Vanya was trying to learn how to trust him again, but Luther was still the man who had locked her in the basement when she had been terrified out of her mind. If he showed signs of turning into anything resembling their father, all bets were off. For his part, Luther seemed to be aware of that fact.

Allison rose from her seat, moving to stand beside Luther with a pointed look.

"You're coming?" Luther asked in surprise.

Allison nodded firmly before writing a message her notepad. She turned the book to Vanya, but even as close as she was to the couch, Klaus still couldn't quite make sense of the blurred letters. Stupid concussion.

"_We won't be like him_," Vanya read aloud. She sighed softly. "That's good. That's very, very good."

The Umbrella Academy would smooth things over with the authorities, but they would not compromise their newfound morals. Luther just looked relieved that he wasn't going to have to bear the weight of responsibility alone.

Vanya managed another tentative smile. "Good luck."

Allison smiled back and Klaus felt Vanya relax beside him. It was slow going, but they were getting there.

"You're staying here," Luther said with a quick glance at Five. "One look at your scowling face and they'll take their chances with the drug lords."

"I didn't want to go anyway," Five replied indifferently. "Call me when it's time for the movie." He disappeared from the couch in a flash and Allison gave a huff of amusement.

"We'll be back soon," Luther promised as he and Allison headed to the door. "Try to stay out of trouble."

The room suddenly felt too quiet with just the four of them in it. From the looks of things, Vanya and Diego felt it, too. Ben seemed unconcerned.

"I think I want to have a bath," Klaus announced, moving to push himself to his feet. "I feel gross."

"Let us help you," Diego said firmly. "Your leg is a mess."

Diego used his good arm to steady Klaus as Vanya helped untangle him from the stolen hospital blanket.

"Oh, no," Vanya exclaimed, blushing violently as she caught an unimpeded view of her brother's ass through his open-backed hospital gown.

"Right. Forgot to warn you about that," Diego winced. "Sorry."

"I'll just go start the water," she stammered, making a hasty and embarrassed exit.

Klaus couldn't help but grin as she fled. "Did you see that? My ass is so nice, it rendered her speechless."

Diego rolled his eyes.

"Don't put weight on his shoulder," Ben warned from his place on the arm of the couch.

"Mom can help me upstairs," Klaus offered. "You're hurt."

"We can handle this," Diego replied firmly. He put Klaus's arm over his good shoulder and Klaus was careful not to lean too heavily into him. Diego's grip was firm around his waist. "Are you ready?"

Klaus gave a non-committal grunt in reply as he took a tentative step. His leg hurt and he still felt dizzy, but just having someone to keep him from tilting too much was proving helpful.

"I'm sorry," Diego said softly.

"About what?" Klaus couldn't keep the hint of confusion out of his voice.

Diego gave a bitter laugh. "About everything. I keep messing up with you and I don't even know why."

Klaus frowned. "You saved my life -"

"I took too damn long to get to you," Diego countered, keeping his gaze studiously forward. "You were drugged and trapped . . . and it wasn't just this time. Hazel and Cha-Cha . . . that shouldn't have happened. I just keep coming in too late, or I don't pay enough attention and you always seem to pay the price for that. I hate that people keep hurting you and I hate that I can't seem to stop it from happening."

"Don't do that," Klaus sighed. "Not everything is your fault, you know. As for missing things, it's not like our family has a history of good communication. We're learning, though; we're trying."

"Well, we should try harder," Diego countered. "With everything that's happened-"

"With everything that's happened," Klaus interrupted, "I have come to realize that my family is messed up and all kinds of crazy."

Diego looked at him in surprise.

"I've also realized that we've gone from strangers who always thought the worst of each other to the kind of people who sit around and wait for someone to wake up after a gunfight. Or the kind of people who throw staplers to save their brother from a gun-toting lunatic. We're more of a family now than we ever were before. We're crazy, but we're _our_ crazy and it will work out. You'll see, _mon frère_."

Diego seemed to mull that over, finally nodding slowly. "I guess."

"Nicely put," Ben commented. "Weird, but nice."

"He's a good bro," Klaus replied. "Doesn't even care that his hand is literally almost on my bare ass."

Diego gave a sound of disgust, but didn't jeopardize Klaus's stability to change his grip.

Klaus didn't even try to hide his grin. "If you really want to help, I might need assistance raiding Allison's closet later."

"I guess I could help with that," Diego sighed, "but if she catches us, it's all on you."

"Fair enough."

The brothers made their way slowly across the room, tired and hurt, but helping each other along every step of the way. If this was what family was like, Klaus was certain he could get used to it.

And if Diego's grip felt suspiciously like a sneaky hug . . . well, Klaus could get used to that, too.

The End

* * *

Thanks again for reading! I hope you liked it!

(I was planning to give Allison and Vanya a little more to do, but the story was not cooperating. I think my next fic will have to be about what they were up to when the boys were dodging bullets . . .)


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